Fernand Kaisergruber, a Belgian born in Antwerp on Jan. 18, 1923 of colonial parents who lived in the Congo. As a youth he joined the Rexist Fascist Party under its leader Leon Degrelle. After the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940 he voluntarily went to Germany and worked in a factory in Cologne. He joined the German army in September 1941 and left for the Russian front in June 1942, where he remained until November of that year, experiencing very heavy fighting. He returned to Russia in July 1943 as a part of a Waffen-SS unit, fighting in the Tcherkassy pocket where thousands of German troops were surrounded. While retreating in February 1944 he was wounded twice and broke a leg, but finally made in back to Germany.
© Jonathan Alpeyrie
